By Scott Rochfort
The tree-hugging, low-emission and dolphin-friendly reputation of Westpac's chief executive, Gail Kelly, has taken a minor hit.
Her bank has slipped three places to number 18 on the 2011 Global 100 List of the world's most sustainable companies, which was published at the recent World Economic Forum by the ''clean capitalism'' journal Corporate Knights.
Gail Kelly ... not so dolphin friendly.Credit: John Shakespeare
''Westpac takes sustainability extremely seriously,'' said Kelly in a statement yesterday in an attempt to sound serious about being serious about being sustainable.
Westpac is still the top-ranked Australian corporation on the list. It almost doubled its revenues per tonne of carbon pumped into the atmosphere (aka carbon dioxide productivity) according to the list. No doubt the lift in lending rates has helped this measure.
ANZ Bank must have thought it was a shoo-in to win a place on the list with the installation of wind turbines and a rainwater tank at its new corporate headquarters. But this was not enough to help the power-station financier make it on the list.
The biggest lift in rankings was by Origin Energy, which rose from No. 56 to No. 19. Other companies on the list include Insurance Australia Group (42), Stockland (55), Sims Metal (63) and GPT (95).
PRAISE AT LAST
The Romanian-Australian businessman Frank Timis has found Sierra Leone a rejuvenating place to be in terms of restoring his reputation. After facing obstacles last year over his plans to gain a backdoor listing on the ASX of his petroleum company because of worries about his background, Timis has been swamped by a barrage of adulation in the country where his London-AIM listed African Minerals is developing a giant iron ore project.
The website Newstime Africa reported recently: ''Frank Timis has helped steer the company to an all-time successful commercial period that has seen profits rise and the prospect for better financial rewards ever more evident.''
The recent surge in Timis's popularity follows the $15,000 and two airline tickets African Minerals donated to help the paramount chief of the area surrounding his Tonkolili mining development get medical treatment in the US.
In a recent report on the website Sierra Express, Chief Alimamy Kulio Jalloh II said: ''African Minerals is our saviour. Delco Mining Company came to our chiefdom but they abandoned us.'' The Sierra Leonean website Peep reported last week that an executive from African Minerals said the company was ''always ready to serve or respond to any Sierra Leonean no matter the colour, religion, tribe or political party as he said it is part of their corporate social responsibility''.
The website Awareness Times carries a picture showing ''a warm handshake'' between Timis and the President of Sierra Leone, Ernest Bai Koroma. Another local news site said: ''African Minerals has gone beyond its corporate social responsibility in making sure that Sierra Leone receives its long-awaited economic glory.''
Last year Timis had his past dredged up when he changed the listing of his now named International Petroleum from the ASX to the Newcastle Stock Exchange.
As a director of International Petroleum, he was required to provide a rap sheet to the NSX where he was forced to disclose his criminal convictions from his younger days and other business-related incidents.
One of them included the £600,000 fine the London Stock Exchange imposed on one of his other companies, Regal Petroleum, for providing ''over-optimistic'' and inaccurate statements to the market.
MAGIC MOMENTS
No lavish opening ceremony plans appear to be in store for Bond University's new school of architecture, which carries the name of the founder of the developer of swish properties, Sunland Group.
Two weeks on since the first students arrived at the Soheil Abedian School of Architecture, the faculty will today host its biggest event yet.
The ''photo call'' with the Gold Coast mayor and the 1956 Olympic flame lighter, Ron Clarke, seems to be as exciting as the launching of the new school will get. ''The mayor will be touring the building and meeting the students,'' a Bond University spokeswoman told CBD.
As for the idea of Abedian getting around to cutting a ribbon, the spokeswoman said: ''We're looking at all the possibilities. It all depends on diaries and travel schedules.''
In the meantime, architecture students at the school will have to draw inspiration from a message provided by Abedian. ''What we leave behind today, only future generations will be the true judge about our contribution to history,'' said the founder of the developer of the Palazzo Versace and Q1 residential tower on the Gold Coast.
IN LIMBO
Shareholders in Takoradi Limited are becoming increasingly anxious to get an update from the mineral explorer headed by the former 1980s high-flyer Rodney Hudspeth.
It is now two months since the company sold its stake in a South American mineral explorer for $3.35 million in cash and 160 million shares in the ASX-listed mining company Metminco, worth more than $60 million. On top of this was the further 35 million Metminco shares issued to settle a $9.7 million debt Takoradi had with its main creditor.
Takoradi shares were suspended in early 2009 when its market capitalisation was about $5 million. In October Hudspeth said the company would seek to have the suspension lifted once the deal with Metminco was completed and its accounts for last year were lodged.
But since early December there has been no update from Takoradi's executive chairman on how long the company will remain in trading limbo. Fortunately for Hudspeth, with Metminco's purchase of Hampton Mining, another company of which he is a sole director, Notesan Pty Ltd, was paid 11.4 million shares worth $4.4 million.
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